Security sources in Co Armagh have said four gun attacks on homes in Portadown and Lurgan at the weekend are believed to be linked to tensions between rival loyalist paramilitary groups in the mid-Ulster area.
The first attack took place around 6 a.m. on Sunday morning when eight shots were fired at a house in Braemar Avenue in Lurgan's Mourneview estate.
Two weeks ago the same house sustained scorch damage when a petrol-bomb was thrown at a downstairs bedroom window.
Between 11.30 p.m. and 12.05 a.m. on Sunday, gunmen opened fire on three homes at Granville Road, Westland Road and Robinsonstown Road in Portadown.
In the attack on Granville Road, in the loyalist Killicomaine estate, a number of shots were fired through an upstairs window. A short time later the house on Westland Road was attacked. Within 15 minutes a shotgun was fired at the house in The Birches, a few miles outside Portadown.
All four homes were occupied at the time of the attacks, but no one was injured.
RUC Chief Inspector Terry Walkingshaw said police were investigating the attacks as attempted murder.
The North's Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, said the weekend shootings were very worrying.
Meanwhile, a loyalist source in Co Armagh said last night that the latest attacks were linked to tensions between the LVF and UVF in mid-Ulster.
"The situation with the UVF and LVF in mid-Ulster is at boiling point", said the source. "They hate each other. Both groups have a number of old scores waiting to be settled".
The source said there was now a real fear that the bitter feud between the rival loyalist groups would result in further violence.